Patrick here from Team Unlimited posting the much overdue review of the new FTC kit. Team Unlimited has been working for a long time trying to scramble together all of our notes and opinions in order to get this review finished.
This is part one of a multi-part series. I will try to get the next part up ASAP. Please leave comments below about your opinions on the kit, your experiences with the kit, etc.
Thank you!
Regards,
~Patrick, Engineer of Team Unlimited
--------
NOTE FROM TEAM UNLIMITED:
Team Unlimited has not gotten any time to work with the mechanics or programming parts of this kit. The comments in this review are from teams in the demonstration pilot and also from various FTC teams that Team Unlimited talked to.
--------
THE KIT:
STRUCTURAL PARTS
Metal
Positives:
+ Light weight aluminum
+ Strong
+ Many holes pre-drilled into metal stock
Negatives:
- Often had problems with fitting metal together
- Metal seemed to be from various sources and thrown together
- Hole spacing reduced (went from 1/2 " from Vex to 1")
- Often had to use tools just to get parts to fit together
- Not went for fine manipulations
The aluminum was a nice addition. Being light weight and strong is a nice addition to the kit. The teams felt that this was a very nice addition, but some felt nostalgic towards the steel and aluminum parts of the vex system. They felt that the the steel was better suited for the chassis and the aluminum was better suited for superstructures. This kept the center of gravity low. This problem might be reduced knowing that the teams can still use the vex metal, but it has yet to be seen how well the interface between the kits will be.
The holes that were predrilled where in a circular pattern allowing to easy of mounting parts at various angles. Teams did say that they encountered problems with the hole spacing. The Vex system had hole spacing of 1/2 " which allowed for easy mounting of parts, now, with this kit, the hole spacing is 1" meaning that teams might have to drill many holes into the metal to get the spacing they desire.
Teams often voiced that they had problems at times fitting together parts into their design. Often having to file, cut, and improvise in order to put these parts together. Although, some would view this as a good thing for "real world" applications in engineering, as, unlike with the vex system, parts don't always fit together perfectly.
A few teams expressed that the metal was not well suited for fine manipulation of objects. They found the Legos included in the kit were better suited for this, but those had there own trade-offs....
Lego
Positives:
+ They are Legos!
+ Very good for fine manipulations
Negatives:
- Fragile
- Interface with metal is weak
How often do High School students get to work with Legos and robotics. Its a perfect match. Its a little throw back to FLL, but now with metal.
The Legos included in the kit are very good for grasping objects and manipulating them. Teams found that their manipulator ends would be lego, while the structure of the manipulator (like arms) would be made from the metal. This gave them the rigidity of the metal, while having the flexibility of the Legos.
That being said, there are a few problems...
The Legos are weak. Anyone who has worked with Legos will tell you that if you don't build your parts right, they will break. In FLL, reinforcement was vital to machine reliability. That was with one robot on a field, moving a moderate pace. Now, imagine that robots with more power and speed and colliding into one another. The Legos will break. One team told me that they switched to a metal manipulator (losing some ability to grab) just to avoid the manipulator from falling apart. The Legos are great for manipulators, but I seriously wonder how well they will hold up to collisions between the robots.
Another problem with the Legos was the interface between the Legos and the in-kit metal. There are small pieces that connect the metal and Legos together. These parts were quote, "prone to failure." Although not all teams said this, some had problems, some had no problems.
------
This is the conclusion of the first installment. If you have any comments, please leave them below, and I will respond to the ASAP. Also, check out our site (http://eaglevex.syraweb.org).
